Briggs: NBA All-Star Game bookends COVID-19 pandemic for Indianapolis

Every year around this time, I start thinking about the COVID-19 pandemic.

We've all got our own ideas for when it started, the moment when the enormity of the situation smacked us in the face. That moment for me came March 12, 2020, when I was working downtown in the IndyStar offices.

Some men rolled the Big Ten logo on a death march through downtown, from its proud position on Monument Circle to wherever you store a giant sports sign. The Big Ten had canceled its basketball tournament (after dragging its feet on the obvious choice), hitting force quit on Indianapolis' economy.

Big Ten Tournament marked COVID-19 pandemic

That's one bookend on the pandemic. The disruptions and suffering escalated from there to a stay-at-home order, debates about who's an essential worker, mask mandates, complicated reopening rules, business closings, cancellation upon cancellation and So. Many. Deaths.

There were some bright spots, including Indianapolis hosting the entire men's NCAA Tournament in 2021, but there were far more things that didn't happen at all. One was the 2021 NBA All-Star Game, which moved to Atlanta after having been scheduled for Indianapolis.

We shrugged, because, what kind of event could we have put on, anyway?

Three years ago, Indianapolis was in the early stages of the slog to normalization. Downtown was eerily quiet, offices were dark and retailers were struggling to hang on day by day. That's not a version of this city we wanted to see ourselves, much less show the nation.

Now, here we are. It's NBA All-Star Week. We're back.

NBA All-Star Game timing is perfect for downtown Indianapolis

The NBA All-Star Game is the other bookend on the pandemic. I know COVID-19 still exists, I know people are still dying, and I know there are important ongoing conversations about how we should be improving building ventilation and caring for people vulnerable to severe illness. But the worst of the pandemic is well behind us and society has bounced back in ways we could only daydream about during the dark days of 2020 and 2021. We're living in the future we had long waited for.

That's especially true in Indianapolis, a city that has rebounded better and stronger than many others. IndyStar's Gregg Doyel laid out all the reasons why Indianapolis is poised to put on a memorable All-Star game. It's worth appreciating just how perfect this timing is.

We have a long way to go, but signs of progress are everywhere (and not just the desperate last-minute pothole filling, sidewalk repairing and mulching I've seen in recent days).

There are pockets of insatiable demand for businesses wanting to open offices — yes, offices — downtown. National retailers including Taco Bell and Chick-fil-A have opened restaurants on Washington Street. Starbucks has a "coming soon" sign up on Meridian Street, north of Washington, just a couple blocks away from a spot where the coffee chain closed while making performative complaints about crime. Local coffee shops, including Tinker Coffee, are betting on downtown, too.

It might be a little silly to point to Taco Bell and Starbucks as signs of strength, but national retail chains have access to about as much data as a presidential campaign. They only make good, safe bets — and they're betting on downtown Indianapolis.

To top it off, Indianapolis is building a city-owned hotel adjacent to the convention center and it finally has a solid plan in place to redevelop Circle Centre Mall, a pair of projects that will alter how visitors experience the city.

Those projects, along with many more, are off in the distance. They don't matter to the All-Star Game, but they help put it in context. A year or two or three ago, the All-Star Game couldn't have meant as much because Indianapolis' future seemed so uncertain, so dicey.

Now, we have more clarity.

The NBA All-Star Game, once another COVID casualty, offers a symbolic end to the pandemic. This time, no one is going to be in a hurry to stash the event signs. They'll come down when they come down.

After that, even better things await.

Contact James Briggs at 317-444-4732 or james.briggs@indystar.com. Follow him on X and Threads at @JamesEBriggs.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Downtown Indy: NBA All-Star Game marks end of COVID-19 pandemic